Greens promise to preserve & restore heritage assets including the Wheaton Covered Bridge & Memramcook Institute

Posted on September 25, 2024 by brucewark

Green leader David Coon with local candidates Megan Mitton and Jacques Giguère outside the Memramcook Institute

The fate of Sackville’s Wheaton Covered Bridge was a main theme yesterday as Green leader David Coon promised his party will push for a comprehensive plan to preserve New Brunswick heritage buildings, lighthouses and covered bridges.

During a campaign event in Memramcook, both Coon and Tantramar Green candidate Megan Mitton promised to fight for the preservation of the Wheaton bridge which has been closed for safety reasons since July 11.

Mitton stressed the need to find a solution for farmers who use the bridge to transport livestock and crops, such as corn silage and hay, across the Tantramar River.

“There’s two issues here,” Mitton told reporters.

“There’s heritage, preservation of the heritage, and then there’s farmers that need to cross that river and so, there may need to be two different solutions to make those two things happen.”

Mitton explained that since the Wheaton bridge wasn’t built to handle the weight and width of today’s farming equipment, the province may need to construct an additional crossing.

“I went for a drive with a farmer out on Goose Lake Road to check things out and I think there’s some fields that won’t get harvested because it’s not going to make sense for the fuel cost and the energy and the time,” she said.

“It’s adding hours and hours of work to their harvest.”

Mitton criticized both the Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals for neglecting covered bridges when they’re  in power.

“Their asset management plan is to let things deteriorate so that then they can…get away with closing them quietly,” she said.

Memramcook Institute

The Higgs government sold the Memramcook Institute a few months ago for $1 million. A Liberal government spent $17 million renovating it

Meantime, David Coon promised that a Green government would buy back the Memramcook Institute, site of the first Acadian University.

The Higgs government sold the building a few months ago to Heritage Developments, a Moncton-based property company that also owns the former Moncton High School.

The government did not disclose the sale price, so after Mitton filed a Right to Information request, she learned that the building was sold for only $1 million even though a previous Liberal government had spent $17 million restoring the exterior of the building and putting a new heating system in it.

Jacques Giguère, who is running for the Greens in the new riding of Dieppe-Memramcook, said the historic, five-storey building could be used for a variety of things including a health-care clinic, nursing home space and offices for social workers.

Giguère castigated the Higgs government for the secrecy surrounding the deal and complained that so far, the new owner isn’t saying anything about the fate of the building.

“It’s all behind closed doors,” he said.  “This is not the way to govern.”

To read extensive CHMA coverage of the sale, click here.

Posted in New Brunswick election 2024 | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Big building could be coming to downtown Sackville

Posted on September 24, 2024 by brucewark

Two prominent Sackville businessmen are seeking permission to build a seven storey commercial-residential building with about 95 apartments on the corner of York Street and Ford Avenue.

Developer John Lafford and Mike Wilson, CEO of the AIL Group of Companies, are asking Tantramar Town Council to change the maximum height in Sackville’s downtown business district from 50 to 75 feet for mixed-use buildings.

“I just wanted to show an example of what a seven storey building would look like,” planner Lori Bickford told council yesterday as she projected a slide showing a proposed building concept for the corner of York and Ford.

She said the development would fit in with the municipal plan’s goal of strengthening the downtown’s image as a vibrant centre of the community.

“Due to increased construction costs and land values, it is not surprising that development trends have been moving towards building higher to increase density on property footprints,” Bickford said in her report to council.

She also reminded council that in 2023, it approved increasing the height limit to 65 feet for urban residential buildings clearing the way for the six-storey, 71-unit Lafford apartment building that is now under construction behind the historic Allison/Fawcett/Fisher house at 131 Main Street.

Bickford pointed out that larger municipalities in southeastern New Brunswick tend to set maximum heights in their downtowns ranging from 59 to 82 feet suggesting “the current height in Sackville’s Downtown Business District is low.”

No heritage worries

Planner Lori Bickford speaking to council as developer John Lafford listens

Construction of the new building would mean the demolition of three old buildings including the historic Thomas Bowser House where Blooms flower shop is now located.

And, since Sackville repealed its heritage bylaw in 2018 to clear the way for a three-storey Lafford apartment building on the site of the United Church he demolished, there are no impediments to this new development aside from the height restrictions.

‘Much-needed’ housing

“We’re going to create housing, which is much needed in Southeast New Brunswick, not just Sackville,” John Lafford told CHMA reporter Erica Butler after Bickford’s presentation to council.

He noted that the first floor of the new building would be commercial space. The other six floors would have about 95 apartments of various sizes.

“We’re going to create a sense of a more vibrant downtown, which is needed in all communities,” he added. “The one critical thing to a community, to a downtown, is to have boots on the ground.”

He also mentioned environmental benefits.

“To be able to build this type of development, you decrease vehicle traffic, you increase walkability, you increase a lifestyle and I think we’ve illustrated that with some of the other buildings that we’re doing in the area.”

Lafford said the new, seven-storey building would include underground parking as well as additional surface parking on land he owns nearby if needed.

He added there is strong demand for this type of housing in downtown Sackville as older people sell their homes to move into smaller units, in turn freeing up housing for younger families.

His new building at 131 Main should be finished next June or July, he said.

Next steps

Council is expected to decide whether it will consider the Lafford/Wilson proposal at its next regular meeting on October 8th. If it decides to proceed, it would need to schedule a public meeting on lifting the 50-foot height restriction.

Meantime, Lafford seems confident that council will move ahead.

“I’ve had a great record with council. I think they believe in us and I believe in them,” he said.

“We like to put a nice product out for them.”

To listen to Erica Butler’s full CHMA interview with John Lafford, click here.

These three York St. buildings would be demolished if the 7-storey development goes ahead

Posted in Housing, Town of Sackville, Town of Tantramar | Tagged | 16 Comments

Liberal leader Susan Holt promises to fix health care on Day 4 of NB election campaign

Posted on September 22, 2024 by brucewark

Liberal leader Susan Holt talking to volunteers and supporters at local campaign HQ

New Brunswick Liberal leader Susan Holt stressed the need to fix the health care system today during the official opening of Tantramar candidate John Higham’s campaign headquarters at 26 York Street in Sackville.

“There’s a lot of New Brunswickers feeling scared,” Holt told a small group of volunteers and supporters on Day 4 of the provincial election campaign.

“They’re scared that if they have a health care crisis, the ambulance won’t show up [or] it will take them to an ER that is not open, [and] if they don’t have a doctor to get referred to, that their loved one isn’t going to get the care they need,” she said.

“Scared that they’re not going to get their rights respected in this province,” Holt added.

“We have to show them that we’re here caring for them and respecting them and building a team that is going to replace Mr. Higgs and bring forward a respectful government.”

Holt promised that under a Liberal government, Sackville would be one of the first of 10 communities to get a fully functioning collaborative care health clinic to complement the services provided at the Sackville hospital.

How not to recruit doctors

Tantramar Liberal candidate John Higham

For his part, John Higham told a story about being in Sackville’s Painted Pony restaurant recently to pick something up when he spotted a group of medical students eating with someone from the Horizon Health Network.

Higham, who resigned as co-leader of the local Rural Health Action Group to run for the Liberals, said he got no satisfactory answer when he asked the person from Horizon why local community members hadn’t been invited to meet with the students.

“How do you recruit in a market like this by just taking them out for supper and talking about the future of their profession?” Higham wondered.

“It’s about where they want to live, it’s about what that community looks like,” he added.

“So this whole idea that we can’t get doctors is because of the way we recruit and so we need to change the way that we do it.”

Persuading people to vote

Both Higham and Holt stressed the campaigning that needs to be done before election day on October 21st.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Higham said.

“We’ve got a strong MLA here right now,” he added, referring to Green MLA Megan Mitton.

He said as he goes door-to-door, he’s hearing it’s time to change the government in Fredericton.

“We’re going to have to convince people to vote,” Holt warned the campaign workers.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t care anymore. They think it doesn’t matter. They think it’s not worth showing up. They think that we’re all the same and it doesn’t matter whether you’re Red, Blue, Green or otherwise, why would I bother going to vote?” she said.

“So, I really appreciate that you folks have decided that it is important enough to be here and to give your time and to support John and to help us convince other people that this election and this province is important enough for folks to get involved.

“So, thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”

Posted in Health care, New Brunswick election 2024 | Tagged , | 2 Comments

What should NB politicians do about rising property taxes?

Posted on September 20, 2024 by brucewark

Glen Savoie, David Coon & Susan Holt discuss local tax reform at a municipal forum organized by the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick and moderated by Isabelle LeBlanc, communications director for the city of Moncton. Photo: UMNB

With tens of thousands of New Brunswickers facing another wave of property tax increases in the coming year because of rising assessments, representatives of the three main political parties discussed the need for municipal financial reform in Fredericton last night on the first official day of the provincial election campaign.

Judging by an online CBC report, Liberal leader Susan Holt, Green leader David Coon and Minister of Local Government Glen Savoie repeated much of what they said when they appeared before Saint John City Council nine days earlier.

Both Holt and Coon promised to let cities share in tax revenues from heavy industry while Holt also promised an overhaul of the property tax system. According to a report by Brunswick News, Coon also pledged to transfer one percentage point of the provincial sales tax to municipalities, but only after major investments in health care have been made first.

Savoie said the government is working on the fiscal reforms that it promised in 2021 as part of the municipal amalgamations that took effect in 2023.

Reliance on residential property taxes

Last night’s forum was organized by the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick (UMNB) after it released a report calling on the province to transfer one point of provincial sales tax revenue (about $225 million per year) to municipalities.

Mt. A. Economics Professor Craig Brett. Photo UMNB

The report, compiled by Mount Allison Economics Professor Craig Brett, says the money is needed partly to make up for steady reductions in provincial grants to local governments.

During an interview with CHMA’s Erica Butler, Brett explained how the provincial grants have dwindled since the year 2000.

“Municipalities used to get 16, 17% of their money from the province back at the turn of the Millennium and now they get about five or six by way of unconditional grants,” he said.

“This didn’t happen overnight,” he added. “Back in the 1980s, the number they got from the province was closer to 40%.”

In his report, Brett points out that the steady reduction in provincial grants has forced municipalities to rely more heavily on residential property taxes compounded by the fact that the value of their commercial or non-residential tax base has not been growing as fast.

He says municipalities also need the sales tax revenue to pay for improvements to local infrastructure such as roads, storm sewers, sidewalks and buildings.

‘Broken system’

Meantime, an expert in valuing properties for tax assessment purposes, says New Brunswick’s property tax system is badly broken.

“The problem in New Brunswick is that taxes and assessments have always had this incestuous relationship and they shouldn’t and they don’t in other provinces,” says Jerry Iwanus, who worked as a property assessor for Service New Brunswick from 2019 to 2023.

Before that, Iwanus spent 40 years in Alberta in various roles including as mayor of Bawlf, a village southeast of Edmonton, as a member of a rural area assessment review board and for 16 years, in private practice property valuation.

Retired property assessor Jerry Iwanus. Photo: submitted

He says that in Alberta, rising property assessments don’t automatically trigger an increase in municipal taxes as they do here because as assessments rise, tax rates are lowered to generate the same amount of revenue.

“Here, when assessments go up, municipalities consider it a windfall,” he says, “instead of making the budgetary case to the ratepayers that ‘Hey, we need to raise taxes here because there are things we need to do.'”

Iwanus says he’s seen this from the inside as an assessor for Service NB.

“So, who gets the blame for all the increased taxes? It’s the bloody assessors and that is simply wrong,” he adds.

He points, for example, to Ontario where the law requires overall property assessments to be revenue neutral and where if politicians need to raise tax rates to meet their budgetary needs, they have to justify them.

“Assessment is an administrative function, the assessor says, ‘This is what the value of the property is.’ Setting the tax rate is a political function and that’s the part where they have to look the ratepayers in the eye and say we need to justify this expenditure.”

Iwanus, who has just published a book called Taxing New Brunswick: An Insider’s Guide to Successfully Challenging Your NB Property Assessment, says that aside from making rising property assessments revenue neutral, the province should change the law that requires municipalities to tie their residential rates to commercial ones.

(In New Brunswick, commercial, non-residential rates must be no more or less than 1.4 to 1.7 times the residential rates.)

“I think municipalities should have a whole lot more flexibility in how they apply tax rates because if residential properties are rising at such an extreme rate and commercial properties are not, that throws everything out of whack, so why is there this arbitrary figure that ties the two of them together?”

To read more on what Iwanus has to say about the property tax and assessment system as an issue in the provincial election, click here.

Posted in New Brunswick election 2024, New Brunswick government, New Brunswick politics | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Does Tantramar need a fenced-in dog park? Mt. A. prof makes her case for one

Posted on September 16, 2024 by brucewark

Mt. A. economics prof and dog owner Carla VanBeselaere

An economics professor at Mount Allison University is calling on the Town of Tantramar to consider building an off-leash, fenced-in dog park.

“It would be a place to go to congregate,” Carla VanBeselaere told town council last week.

“It would provide opportunities for community members to connect with each other,” she said in a town where, judging by posts on social media, “disconnection seems to be paramount.”

VanBeselaere added that such a park would help owners socialize their dogs while their pets burn off energy.

“At least an acre of land is usually considered appropriate for this kind of facility,” she told council, adding that it would need five-foot fencing.

“Lots of people suggested that there are spaces you can take your dogs. None of them are fenced unfortunately and that prohibits people whose dogs have a tendency to wander from participating.”

She projected a slide showing more of the things a dog park would need:

VanBeselaere said she does not have a location in mind suggesting that would be up to the town as it weighs costs and benefits.

She noted that she and her miniature poodle Barkus visit the fenced-in dog park in Amherst usually every week.

A photo of Barkus appears over an online petition she is circulating that has so far gathered 140 signatures and she said an additional 98 people signed a paper copy at the Sackville Farmers Market.

“I asked people who were in person to indicate whether they were willing to contribute time and effort into the initiative as well and I got 24 who said that they’d be willing to volunteer.”

VanBeselaere added that she was confident there would be financial support from people as well.

“So, I’m looking at you and telling you that it might be a question of money, but we can probably find it.”

After her five-minute presentation, Councillors Debbie Wiggins-Colwell, Josh Goguen and Michael Tower expressed their tentative support while Councillor Allison Butcher said there has always been interest in having a dog park here and she suggested it would be worth taking an in-depth look into it.

In July 2020, Sackville Town Council voted against building one in Beech Hill Park that would have cost $80,000.

To read coverage, click here.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Advocate calls on Tantramar Town Council to make heritage preservation a priority

Posted on September 14, 2024 by brucewark

Heritage preservation advocate Meredith Fisher addressing council last Monday

A longtime advocate has called on Tantramar Town Council to make heritage preservation a priority in its new five-year strategic plan.

Speaking on behalf of about 35 people who attended last Monday’s council meeting, Meredith Fisher also urged council to create an advisory committee to help draft a new heritage bylaw.

“The vision within our request that we are making to you today is to ensure that the legacy of our heritage is passed on and not lost to future generations,” Fisher told council.

“Our heritage binds us together and defines us, as a community, more perfectly than anything else,” she said, after noting that heritage includes historic buildings, artefacts, culture and natural assets such as wetlands, landscapes and vistas.

“Once lost, heritage is never replaceable and the community loses its sense of place, distinctiveness and aesthetic value.”

Economic benefits

Fisher argued that heritage preservation generates economic benefits including tax revenues, jobs and increased property values.

“The rehabilitation of older buildings produces higher-paying jobs and money tends to stay in the local economy,” she said.

She added that natural heritage such as Sackville’s internationally recognized Waterfowl Park can also attract tourists.

“With the proper marketing, people could be attracted here from all over the world, all year round,” she said.

“Tantramar could emerge after four years as a national treasure, a destination of choice, and wealthier, all based on our recognition of the value of our natural, cultural and built heritage.”

Council reaction

Councillor Michael Tower says he supports a new heritage bylaw

After Fisher ended her five-minute presentation, Councillor Michael Tower thanked her and those who attended to show support.

“I definitely support your cause because it’s part of mine also,” Tower said, noting that his forbears were among the New England Planters who came to the Tantramar area beginning in 1760-61.

He referred to the repeal in 2018 of Sackville’s heritage bylaw leaving property owners free to demolish or alter the look of downtown buildings in previously designated heritage conservation areas without having to apply for a permit.

“We lost that heritage bylaw and I agree it should come back, even more so now that we have gone from Sackville to Tantramar because we know that just across the way, historic Dorchester is there and my roots are there also,” he said.

“I think it’s even more important that we bring a bylaw in to start protecting some places.”

In 2018, Tower strongly supported repealing Sackville’s heritage bylaw and abolishing its heritage board.

He suggested then that the board had imposed unfair, ridiculous and costly conditions on owners seeking to improve their properties.

To read about the repeal of Sackville’s heritage grants policy in 2020 as well as the bitter controversies around the heritage bylaw, click here.

To read the full text of Meredith Fisher’s presentation to council, click here.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Tantramar Council asks staff to draft a bylaw regulating tall grasses on residential properties

Posted on September 11, 2024 by brucewark

Councillor Matt Estabrooks

After an eight-minute slide presentation from Councillor Matt Estabrooks on Monday, Tantramar Council directed municipal staff to draft a new bylaw regulating tall grass and other vegetation on residential properties.

Estabrooks made it clear the bylaw should not apply to “farmer’s fields or woodland and fields without housing on the outskirts of our communities.”

He said he was bringing the matter forward after hearing from residents concerned about fire safety issues, pest control and protecting their property values.

Residents’ concerns

Coun. Estabrooks presented this slide showing residents’ concerns about tall grass and weeds

Estabrooks pointed out that Moncton, Riverview and Shediac all have bylaws regulating tall grasses and vegetation on residential lawns to a maximum height of 20 centimetres (eight inches).

He also referred to Dieppe’s bylaw regulating vegetative growth.

It was revised recently removing all reference to the height of plants to comply with court decisions suggesting that aesthetic criteria for lawn maintenance are arbitrary and contrary to Canada’s Charter of Rights.

In a note on its website, Dieppe also says that turning lawns into natural spaces is more environmentally friendly and desirable as long as the plants are not harmful, toxic or dangerous, do not pose a fire hazard or “block traffic, visibility, signs and street lighting.”

“I’m not necessarily convinced that a length measurement of grasses on residential lawns is a necessary component of this bylaw,” Estabrooks told council.

“I feel discretion is critical in this area of the bylaw,” he said, adding that he was sure town staff would determine how to quantify when or if a lawn could be considered “unkept.”

He said a tall grasses bylaw should include language allowing Council to suspend it temporarily for initiatives such as “No Mow May” and to allow bylaw officers to exempt natural gardens that are important for the local eco-system.

“The intention is to mitigate properties which are completely unkept and therefore present safety concerns,” he said.

Past history

Both Mayor Andrew Black and Councillor Allison Butcher praised the Estabrooks slide show and both voted to direct staff to draft a tall grasses bylaw even though they acknowledged they had opposed one in Sackville in 2018.

To read coverage of why the idea was rejected then, click here.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged | 9 Comments

Green MLA Mitton assails Liberal calls for majority government at her campaign kick-off in Sackville

Posted on September 8, 2024 by brucewark

Green MLA officially launching her re-election campaign at Cranewood Bakery in Sackville

MLA Megan Mitton asked about 25 supporters to imagine a minority government with her Green Party holding the balance of power after this fall’s provincial election.

“This is a very likely outcome on the evening of October 21st,” she said during the official launch of her re-election campaign today at Cranewood Bakery in Sackville.

“Here in Tantramar, there are some inaccurate claims going around that a majority Liberal government is needed to get rid of Higgs,” Mitton continued.

“That’s simply not true. A minority government would serve New Brunswickers well and keep the old traditional parties from wielding 100% of the power, which is really what drives them,” she said.

“And to be clear, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Greens will not work with Higgs, so your Green vote helps get rid of him,” she added to a round of applause.

Mitton reminded her supporters that she launched her first successful campaign in the same room six years ago when she won the riding of Memramcook-Tantramar by 11 votes in an election that produced New Brunswick’s first minority government in nearly 100 years.

“We stood here six years ago in this room for my campaign and, at the time, we had a Liberal majority government under which health care had gotten worse,” she said.

“At the time, the Liberals had just privatized management of extramural and the Liberals had just signed a terrible contract with Ambulance New Brunswick, both with Medavie, both without tenders or RFPs [Requests for Proposals],” she added.

“The Ambulance New Brunswick contract has been criticized by the auditor-general and gives millions in bonuses even when we get terrible response times.”

Future priorities and past accomplishments

Mitton campaign handout showing key Green promises

Mitton outlined key Green promises that included improving access to family doctors and emergency room services, a rent cap for tenants, a fairer property tax system for homeowners and protecting communities from extreme weather.

She listed several accomplishments including:

  • bringing together a health-care committee to fight for full services at Sackville Memorial Hospital and inviting the heads of the Horizon Health Network, Ambulance New Brunswick and NB Health Link to come to the community to answer questions from citizens
  • lobbying for funding of the primary care clinic that is now open near the hospital and staffing for the Port Elgin health clinic where she said a new family doctor will start offering services next year
  • fighting for Rte. 106 to open between Sackville and Dorchester two months earlier than planned
  • urging governments to deal with the threat of flooding on the Chignecto Isthmus
  • “I’ve brought ministers from DTI to agriculture to environment to the riding to show them what was needed for stormwater retention, to advocate for roads. I drove them in my car so that it was really bumpy so they’d really get the point.”
  • “In the legislature, Greens have successfully pushed for the minimum wage to be increased, got the government to study the implementation of paid sick leave for all, index social assistance to the cost of living… [and] the creation of a housing minister and the New Brunswick Housing Corporation.”
  • “When the minister of health wouldn’t release a report on midwifery, I got a copy through an RTI (Right of Information request) and I read it into the record in committee.”

‘Corruption’ and ‘patronage’

“The people who are saying things like ‘We need a majority Liberal government and we need a seat at the table,’ they’re saying these things because we threaten them, the Greens threaten them,” Mitton said returning to one of her main themes.

“The Liberals and the Conservatives used to just pass power back and forth taking turns and it worked well for them, but did it work well for New Brunswickers?” she asked to a chorus of “nos” from her supporters.

“Rather than trying to sell a seat at the table and buying into the corruption and patronage that makes people distrust and dislike government, I will continue to stand up against corruption all day long,” Mitton promised.

“Everyone should have access to heath care, to safe roads and bridges, to good schools and services in their community, no matter what colour their MLA represents.”

Megan Mitton with Jacques Giguère, a retired Radio-Canada journalist who is running for the Greens in the adjacent riding of Dieppe-Memramcook

Posted in New Brunswick election 2024 | Tagged | 2 Comments

Tantramar councillors to mull over hundreds of ideas for the town’s strategic plan

Posted on September 7, 2024 by brucewark

Graphic that appeared on the town’s website inviting people to participate in strategic plan sessions & surveys

Members of Tantramar Council and senior town staff will be sifting through hundreds of ideas, suggestions and criticisms when they meet behind closed doors this month to draft a five-year strategic plan for the newly amalgamated municipality.

The ideas were compiled by the consultancy firm Strategic Steps Inc. based on responses from the 82 people who attended three public drop-in sessions, 144 who filled out an online survey and responses from 25 unidentified “stakeholders” including members of groups such as the Greater Dorchester Moving Forward Co-operative, the Climate Change Advisory Committee, people with an interest in economic development and participants from Mount Allison University.

Consultant Craig Pollett told CHMA reporter Erica Butler last month that during their closed-door “workshops,” members of council will have a chance to identify several key things they want town managers to pursue in setting a general direction for Tantramar.

“It gives the council a way to say to their administrative team, ‘This is where we want to end up, this is where we want to go.'” Pollett explained. “‘So, four years from now, we should have these 20 things accomplished.'”

The ideas, suggestions and criticisms are contained in a 12-page, “What We Heard” report posted on the town’s website.

It outlines for example, people’s thoughts about what improves their quality of life and what detracts from it:

The report shows a strong public interest in improving transportation including establishing inter-municipal bus services and creating bicycle lanes.

Under the heading “Sustainability,” it identifies the four leading issues as: renewable energy, local food production, biodiversity/conservation and climate-proofing municipal infrastructure.

Municipal services

The report says health, water, fire and policing were considered the most important municipal services:

Communications

The report says that residents identified communications as one of the municipality’s main shortcomings.

“Residents generally do not feel informed about the work of the municipality, with 41.5% indicating a lack of information and, only 28.6% saying they felt somewhat informed. 29% felt neutral, while nearly nobody felt totally informed (2%).”

Municipal Infrastructure

The report says water and sewer facilities scored highest with trails and parks in second place.

Sackville’s Visitor Information Centre was highly regarded with roads, sidewalks and public transportation scoring much lower, especially in Dorchester.

The report says most respondents did not identify the availability of housing as a “major barrier” to living in Tantramar, but points out about 85% of them were homeowners. It says that 13.3% named housing as “the most significant barrier” to living here, a number roughly equal to the renters who responded indicating “a need for rental options in the community.”

Improving Tantramar

To read the full “What We Heard” document, click here.

Note: On August 26, Mayor Black responded to my e-mail asking that the council sessions to draft the strategic plan be open to the public partly because I wanted to cover them and partly because they do not meet the criteria for holding closed meetings under Section 68  of New Brunswick’s local governance act (LGA). Here’s his reply:

I think the critical piece to consider is the Strategic Planning sessions are not subject to LGA provisions since they are not a meeting of council and no decisions are being made. We appreciate the interest in the perspectives of elected officials, and a ‘What we heard’ document will be prepared for the public after these sessions.

On August 26th, I filed a complaint with New Brunswick’s Ombud asking for a ruling on whether council’s closed-door meetings are legal under the local governance act.

For previous strategic plan coverage, click here and here.

Posted in Town of Tantramar | Tagged , | 5 Comments

UPDATED: NB Election 2024: As the PCs solicit donations based on Higgs’s support for Israel, candidates weigh in on the war in Gaza

Posted on September 1, 2024 by brucewark

Note: This story has been updated to add a comment from Tantramar Liberal candidate John Higham.

With less than two months to election day scheduled for October 21st, New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservatives are continuing to solicit donations from conservatives across Canada on their helphiggswin.ca website.

Their appeal is based on four key planks that Premier Higgs supports: Fiscal Conservative Approach, Common Sense Policies For Parents, An Ally For Natural Resource Development and Principled Support For Israel.

The premier’s office has not responded to e-mails from Warktimes asking for more information on Higgs’s support for Israel after more than 10 months of war on Gaza.

What does he have to say about the International Court of Justice rulings that there is at least a plausible case for genocide against Israel and that all countries have an obligation not to support Israeli settlements in the occupied territories?

My e-mails also asked about the premier’s position on the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as well as provincial subsidies and supports for companies in New Brunswick that manufacture weapons sold to Israel.

And since the PCs are making support for Israel an issue in the provincial election, it might also be asked how the premier’s “principled support” demonstrates he’s a leader Canadian donors and New Brunswick voters can trust.

PC candidate’s position

When asked about his own position, Tantramar PC candidate Bruce Phinney said he is calling for a ceasefire now that more than 40,000 people have been killed and more than 90,000 injured.

Councillor Bruce Phinney speaking against sending a letter calling for a ceasefire at a council meeting in March

“What’s outrageous is what is happening to the people and the children and the number of people that are being killed and everything. I think it’s absolutely terrible,” Phinney told reporters on August 14th, the day he announced he was running for the PCs in Tantramar.

At the same time though, he said he simply doesn’t know much about the roots of the conflict.

“I don’t know what’s been going on between Israel and Gaza except for what’s been happening recently. People have said to me this has been going on for hundreds of years,” he says.

“Do I like what’s happening? No. Do I think there should be a ceasefire? Yes.”

In March however, Phinney sided with the majority on Tantramar Town Council when he spoke against sending a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau urging him to call for a ceasefire.

He suggested then that asking for a ceasefire would amount to taking sides, making it seem the war is “all Israel’s fault and not Gaza. Hamas was the one that started it on October 7th,” he said.

When asked why he spoke against calling for a ceasefire then, Phinney said he believed a letter from Tantramar Town Council would not have made any difference.

Liberal position

New Brunswick Liberal leader Susan Holt also says she wants a ceasefire.

“We would like to see an end to the violence because too many people have lost their lives,” Holt said in Sackville on July 29th after the Liberals had nominated John Higham as  their local candidate.

“We need to end the violence, but we need to be sure in doing so we’re not advancing anti-Semitism or not advancing anti-Palestinian thoughts,” she added.

NB Liberal leader Susan Holt

“We need the Palestinians to have access to their territory that has been occupied for far too long and we need a ceasefire that ends the violence. That’s our position.”

Holt spoke a few days after the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s 57-year occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful and should come to an end “as rapidly as possible.”

The court said other nations were obligated not to help Israel continue occupying territory or building and expanding its settlements on Palestinian land.

When asked if the New Brunswick Liberal Party would support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel, Holt said that could be considered on a case-by-case basis, but the immediate need is for a ceasefire.

“I’d like to see folks focused on a two-state solution where we end the occupation and we end the violence and I’d like to see our national leaders take that approach.”

When asked if she would favour ending provincial subsidies for companies that manufacture weapons for Israel, Holt said she’s not aware of any such subsidies, but would love to learn more.

NOTE: Pro-Palestinian activists have pointed, for example, to federal and provincial subsidies to Apex Industries of Moncton which makes components for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jets that Israel has used in its war on Gaza. Earlier this year, protesters marched to the Apex factory to publicize their call for an embargo on weapons sales to Israel. For information on Lockheed Martin’s sponsorship of research at the University of New Brunswick as part of its obligations under federal military procurement contracts, click here and here.

Note: Warktimes did not ask Liberal candidate John Higham for his position on Gaza, but after questions from readers, I e-mailed him to ask. Higham replied that he agreed with what Liberal leader Susan Holt had to say, but added:

However, I would comment that the fact that Mr. Higgs would use this tragic conflict and the misery of others to drum up dollars from out-of-province donors is hugely distasteful.  But it is consistent with his divisive approach where Instead of bringing people together, he tries to pit New Brunswickers against each other.  He has done this on many topics, and this is yet another reason why his government must be defeated.

Green position

Megan Mitton at the Sackville Commons in August

“As a provincial political party, we don’t have any policies on international issues. Our party does have a principle of non-violence,” Green MLA Megan Mitton wrote in an e-mailed response to questions from Warktimes.

“There’s heart-wrenching violence and death taking place in Gaza,” she continued.

“The UN’s independent human rights experts are calling for a ceasefire, arms embargo, and boycott and divestment actions. These latter actions helped end apartheid in South Africa. These actions will save lives and help restore peace, so yes, I support these calls.”

Mitton, who also serves as deputy leader, said that the New Brunswick Green Party would not subsidize arms manufacturers.

“That’s not how we build local economies or contribute to peace,” she writes. “This is a form of corporate welfare we oppose.”

NDP position

Tantramar NDP candidate Evelyne Godfrey says that although the provincial wing of the party has no official position on Israel/Gaza, she personally disagrees with the Conservative party’s tactic of soliciting campaign donations based on Premier Higgs’s support for Israel.

“I think what the PCs are engaging in here is dog whistle politics where they’re trying to take sides in a conflict that I suspect they don’t fully understand,” she said during an interview last month.

Godfrey, who is an archeologist, maintains that instead of what she termed “virtue signalling” from both supporters and opponents of Israel, more education is needed about the historic roots of the conflict.

Tantramar NDP candidate Evelyne Godfrey strongly supports Israel as a sovereign state that should be left to work out its differences with the Palestinians

“I was teaching a course on Roman Judea last year at UNB and so I know the history and background.”

Godfrey referred to a paper she wrote last January for a Holocaust Memorial Day event in Britain.

In it, she argued that the British sowed the seeds of the current conflict with an artificial division of Palestine that ignored 3,000 year old maps showing where the Jews and the Philistines lived in Biblical times.

Godfrey advocates a two-state solution in which Palestinians would be given the area around the Gaza Strip where the ancient Philistines lived, while Israel would be sovereign over Israelite land including the West Bank.

She does not agree that Israel is occupying Palestinian land.

To read her paper and see the map, click here.

Godfrey strongly disagrees with both the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as well as calls for an embargo on weapons sales to Israel.

She also criticizes those who use terms such as “genocide” to describe the war and “apartheid” to refer to the segregation of Palestinians.

“If you’re aiming these misused words at Israel and only at Israel, then I think at the basis of that, you really need to re-examine what’s motivating you because it looks a lot like anti-Semitism.”

Godfrey says it should be left to Israel to work out its differences with the Palestinians.

She’s also grateful for the unwavering U.S. support for Israel.

“All I can say is, thank God for the United States and I only hope that after this terrible, terrible time with the current war in Gaza, that we can come to a peaceful solution.”

Posted in New Brunswick election 2024 | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Tantramar engineer warns Sackville’s at risk of a water shortage

Posted on August 28, 2024 by brucewark

Town Engineer Jon Eppell explaining why Sackville is at risk of a water shortage

Tantramar’s town engineer has revealed that Sackville is at risk of running short of treated water unless something is done about three, 27-year-old pumps inside the water treatment plant off Walker Road.

“I’m not sure if people have understood that we’ve had difficulties over the last 15 or 16 months meeting the demand for water in Sackville,” Jon Eppell told Tantramar Council at its Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday.

He explained, for example, that when firefighters were battling the blaze that destroyed Joey’s restaurant last year, they needed to pump additional water from Silver Lake.

Eppell added that the town has been managing the risk of a water shortage by repairing water main breaks quickly and adjusting the flushing of the system.

But he warned the risk continues and needs to be dealt with.

Lengthy investigations

Eppell said it took a long time to figure out why Sackville’s water system was producing less treated water than needed.

Among other things he said, investigations ruled out leaks in water mains or in the storage tanks at the treatment plant.

“We looked at flow meters to make sure those were accurate and then we came to the low-lift pumps.”

He explained that water from three deep wells is pumped into a large tank underneath the treatment plant.

He said the three low-lift pumps lift that raw water a considerable height, run it through water filters before it gets chlorinated and then flows into an even-larger, treated water tank ready for distribution in Sackville.

He said the pumps were installed around 1997 and do not appear to have been refurbished or serviced since then.

“We believe that there’s wear in the impellers, the blades that push the water through and we’ve concluded that they are operating in some cases at perhaps less than 50% of the expected efficiency.”

Council concerns

Councillor Matt Estabrooks wondered if it would be more prudent to buy one new pump

Eppell said that because money is tight, he was recommending that Council authorize spending $36,300 to refurbish one of the pumps, a process that could take at least 11-12 weeks.

“Would it possible, or even maybe more prudent, to order a new pump and have it on hand?” Councillor Matt Estabrooks asked.

“If we are at low capacity possibly with three, worn-out pumps and we remove one, then we’re running on two until we can get the refurbishment done,” he said.

Estabrooks suggested the new pump could replace each of the existing pumps as they are refurbished.

“That would be the best solution, I agree,” Eppell answered even though he noted a new pump would cost an extra $20,000.

Councillors Barry Hicks and Bruce Phinney agreed it would be best to buy a new pump.

And Councillor Josh Goguen suggested that buying a new pump could mean less of a delay in getting the whole system operating efficiently again.

In the end, Council referred the matter to their regular meeting on September 9th where they could authorize the purchase of a new pump.

To read Jon Eppell’s full report to council, click here.

Veolia contract

Since 2007, Sackville’s water treatment plant has been operated and maintained by Veolia, a multi-national company based in France.

After the amalgamation of Tantramar in 2023, the contract was amended to include Dorchester’s water system.

Veolia also runs Moncton’s water system and at Monday’s Tantramar Council Committee meeting, Jon Eppell said the company can continue to offer its services to Tantramar because its much-larger Moncton contract has been renewed for five years.

“The only reason that we are able to have Veolia come in and do this work is because they have the much-larger project in Moncton,” he said.

“If they did not have that, they would not be coming to New Brunswick and offering their services,” he added.

He recommended renewing Veolia’s contract with Tantramar from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2029 at an initial monthly fee of $31,382.87 and an additional annual cost this year of about $46,000, or an increase of about 12.2%.

Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell suggested Tantramar needs its own certified water treatment staff

Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell was the lone dissenting voice when Council voted to refer the matter to its regular meeting on September 9th.

She said Tantramar should have staff trained and certified in water treatment in case Moncton opts out in five years and Veolia leaves the province.

“Tantramar water treatment and staff should be certified and up-to-date so if something happens down the road, they’re ready to take over.”

“That’s always been a big concern of mine,” she said. “Water is a very important part of our system.”

To read Jon Eppell’s report to council and the amendments to the Veolia contract, click here.

Posted in Town of Sackville, Town of Tantramar | Tagged | 6 Comments